Month: February 2017

Washington offensive tackle Trent Williams sustained a right knee injury during the team’s Thursday Night Football game against the New York Giants and is questionable to return.

There’s not much we know about what exactly happened, but there’s this from ESPN 980 in Washington, D.C.: A tape of him dragging his unconscious partner surfaced online, and the NFL suspended him for two games. Fast forward to September, and leaked footage taken from inside the elevator showed the graphic details of Rice’s assault on Palmer, which led to the running back’s release from the Ravens and an indefinite suspension from the league.

Of all the things that a fan could do with her spare time, why devote yourself to this? This seems like the sort of thing everyone could agree on, in some ways — most people don’t like the idea of businesses ducking out on their civic obligations — but the NFL is a pretty conservative sport with a pretty conservative discourse, and that tends to have a strange effect on people where that’s concerned. How would you characterize the response you’ve gotten?

I love football. Look, my petition wasn’t created in an attempt to bring down the NFL. Almost every football fan I know wants to see the league changed for the better specifically because they love football. We want to cheer for our teams with enthusiasm, not with caveats or heavy hearts. The support from the fans has been overwhelming.

The issues that have been coming to a head with the league lately are not new to the sport or the personnel. But to be honest, they have been ignored for too long due to the sheer arrogance of the league office. They thought they were untouchable. Nobody is untouchable. And I think that’s part of what people want to see.

We want the NFL to be a team player, to have good character, to be the star we enjoy watching every week. More than anything, we want them to remember that without the fans, there is no league. Our voices should be heard and considered.

Garoppolo starts with the front-side read in his drop. That will keep the Dolphins free safety (orange circle) to the hash mark while Bennett (yellow circle) stems up the field on the seam route. By the time Garoppolo flips his hips, moves his eyes to the back side and sets his platform to throw, the safety is stuck on the wrong side of the field. Great footwork, eyes and mechanics from Garoppolo to deliver a good ball to Bennett for the score.

Garoppolo doesn’t have elite arm strength, but that is often overrated at the position. Instead, we have to focus on the production and ability to create windows on throws down the field to the inside seam or the deep out cuts. In Weeks 1 and 2, Garoppolo was 4-of-7 for 113 yards and two touchdowns on throws that traveled more than 20 yards in the air. And if you study those plays, it starts with his vision.

The veteran linebacker would cost the team $4.2 million in dead cap money, but produce a net savings of more than $5 million should the Texans move on from a longtime face of the franchise. Cushing made only 65 tackles last year and endured his first season as a pro without forcing a turnover. Though he’s only 30, his best years may be behind him — which makes him a candidate to be cut, albeit a relatively unlikely one.

The Colts don’t have a ton of expendable, high-cost players. Andrew Luck, Anthony Castonzo, Vontae Davis, and T.Y. Hilton are all important parts of the roster, and every one but Davis carries considerable dead cap money on his contract. That leaves Jones, whose release would clear up more than $5.1 million this spring.

Jones will be 31 next season and has yet to live up to the standard he set in Baltimore before signing with Indianapolis. The Colts could keep him around, but if the team needs a little breathing room in free agency, the third-most famous Jones brother could be given his walking papers.

At the 2011 NFL Combine, a cornerback from Stanford checked in at 6’3, 195 pounds. Richard Sherman was a two-year starter at the cornerback position after spending the two years before that as a receiver. He was somewhat raw, relatively new to cornerback, ran a little slow, and because of all this, fell into the fifth round before a team decided to take a chance on him. Fast forward four years, and Sherman is a three-time first-team All-Pro for the Seahawks, and earning every cent of a four-year, $57.4 million contract extension.

Rovell states the promotion was cancelled because it conflicts with the NFL’s standing sponsorship with General Motors.

If the Titans moved to LA theyd end up waiting tables for 16 years before giving up the dream and moving back home and all there high school friends wouldnt of even noticed that they moved away. This is a franchise that is still dealing with the ghost of Vince Young and CJ2YPC: When those two left town all of the sudden the liquor store and Window tenting busness bubbles collapsed Titans Club Suite season ticket purchases plummeted.

The Titans are in need of a savior, but unfortunatly they wont find one at QB this week. Just look at their options:

Instead of a new Porsche, the three fastest players will receive $100,000, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN. That’s enough to buy a Porsche on their own. Or get something else. You know, without a giant cheetah on it. Each of the three cars for this year’s promotion were worth approximately $83,000. The proposed cheetah print represents Adidas’ new Uncaged adizero 5-star cleat, which also has a cheetah on them.

The Seattle Seahawks signed kicker Blair Walsh to a one-year deal last week, and the details of his contract make it clear that Walsh will have to perform well to earn his spot on the 53-man roster.

The deal can net Walsh up to $1.1 million, but it contains no guaranteed money. Walsh is set to receive $800,000 in base salary in 2017 and can earn an additional $300,000 in bonuses.

The first bonus is for $150,000 and kicks in if Walsh is on the 53-man roster for the first game of the season.

Additionally, Walsh can earn $9,375 for each game he is on the 53-man roster.

This is a low-risk deal for the Seahawks. Steven Hauschka is scheduled to be a free agent, and the Walsh signing suggests that Seattle is preparing for Hauschka to sign elsewhere. But it does not mean that the Seahawks are sold on Walsh being their kicker in 2017.

They will almost certainly bring in a rookie kicker to compete with him in the spring. And if a rookie performs well, he will be a less expensive option than Walsh.

The Seahawks don’t want to go into next season with a question mark at kicker, but Hauschka will likely want to be paid like a top-10 player at his position, and that could mean a salary of at least $3 million per year. They’ll save money and cap space by going with Walsh or a rookie instead.

Walsh made the Pro Bowl in 2012 but struggled when the Minnesota Vikings played outdoors. In the wild-card round of the 2015 playoffs, he missed a potential game-winning field goal from 27 yards out against the Seahawks and was never able to bounce back last season. The Vikings released Walsh after he struggled through nine games.

The Seahawks will see if Walsh can find his footing this spring and summer. If he does, Walsh will be well-positioned to earn his money in 2017.

Although a beautiful 38-yard catch by Giants receiver Mario Manningham is etched in our memories, the Patriots were still in decent shape at that point. They held a 17-15 lead with 3:46 remaining. The ball was at midfield and their win probability remained 53.3 percent. The real killer was QB Eli Manning’s 14-yard pass to receiver Hakeem Nicks, about a minute-and-a-half later, on second down. That play put the Giants inside the Patriots’ 20-yard line (at the 18), well in range of a field goal.

A field goal in that situation wouldn’t have been a crusher. The Patriots would have gotten the ball back needing just a field goal of their own to win. (Stephen Gostkowski had converted all five postseason attempts and had missed only twice since Halloween.)

A decision looms on Tyrod Taylor, who won’t be back on that contract and might not be back at all if the Bills can’t work anything out. If Taylor stays, the Bills’ job is to surround him with talent. If he goes, they’re in the same unfortunate bucket as these next four teams.

The trick for Jones is doing what’s right for Romo and the franchise.

“We’ve got a lot to do. We’ll get it sorted out. That’s what it’s all about,” Jones said. “Relationships come into play here.

“When you’ve got the kind of relationship I’ve got with him, and the type of person that Tony Romo is, we’ll get this worked out.”

Jones knows the odds are against it, but he still hopes he can persuade Romo to back up Prescott.

So what’s the sales pitch?

“It has to do with what his options are,” Jones said. “If he went to another team, it has to do with what his ability is to compete here.

That said, they may look to add some talent in the linebacker corps, another strong area for the Cardinals (not this year so much, but the inside linebackers — Karlos Dansby and Daryl Washington — made up the identity of that defense in 2013). Having a solid middle of the field there is huge for Bowles, so that could end up being priority number one.

Additionally, as with any team, they’ll look to add some pass rushing help on the outside. This could start a run on outside linebackers — Dante Fowler, Vic Beasley, Bud Dupree, among others — and have effects on the later part of the round.

I’d expect the Jets to look hard at cornerbacks in both free agency and the draft.

One exciting thing for the Jets going into this year is their talent on the defensive line, and Bowles will have some fun working with Muhammed Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson and a few others in implementing his scheme, but I wouldn’t rule out another investment at defensive end. Strength on strength on strength.

As for the offense, scheme and philosophical changes under new coordinator Chan Gailey could have huge reverberations on the rest of the draft because New York may feel they need to select a quarterback early in the draft. Regime changes haven’t always been easy on young quarterbacks that were selected by the previous group. This would obviously be an interesting bombshell.

At the core of Arizona’s elite defense last year was an excellent front that featured Calais Campbell, but their secondary consisted of a deep stable of playmakers. With Patrick Peterson, Antonio Cromartie, Tyrann Mathieu, Deone Buchannon, Justin Bethel, and more ranging about, Bowles was able to effectively institute what he wanted. Execution is big, after all.